🤔 AI chatbots are ‘juicing engagement’

💻 Apple teams up with Anthropic on AI coding tool

• Apple is collaborating with Anthropic to create an AI-driven software platform aimed at helping developers write, modify, and check computer instructions using artificial intelligence capabilities.

• This system, representing an updated version of Apple's Xcode programming environment, leverages Anthropic's Claude Sonnet model and is slated for initial deployment within the company's internal teams.

• The arrangement with Anthropic expands Apple's network of AI partners, which already involves OpenAI for certain features and might include Google's technology later on.

🫠 Google confirms training AI models using opted out web content

• A Google executive confirmed the company utilizes publisher content to train its AI search features, even when website owners use controls intending to block this collection.

• Testimony revealed the specific "Google-Extended" directive only restricts data access for DeepMind's AI development, not impacting material usage by the separate Google Search organization.

• This distinction creates a difficult choice for website administrators, as standard methods to prevent inclusion in AI summaries might also diminish their site's visibility in regular results.

📦 Temu halts direct China shipping as tariff loophole closes

• Online retailer Temu modified its US business strategy by discontinuing direct shipments from China following the implementation of stricter regulations on low-value imported goods from overseas.

• This significant change coincided with the termination of the de minimis provision, an $800 duty-free exemption that previously allowed inexpensive items to enter the country without tariffs.

• Temu now primarily features products dispatched from warehouses within the United States and is actively recruiting American sellers to navigate the new import costs and trade rules.

🤔 AI chatbots are ‘juicing engagement’ instead of being useful, Instagram co-founder warns

• Instagram co-creator Kevin Systrom criticized artificial intelligence firms for prioritizing user interaction through follow-up prompts instead of delivering genuinely helpful information to people asking questions.

• He argued these methods mirror social media's aggressive expansion techniques, calling it a detrimental force pushing companies down a problematic path focused only on boosting usage numbers.

• Systrom proposed that chatbot chattiness is a deliberate design choice intended to inflate metrics like time spent, urging AI developers to concentrate on providing high-quality responses.

⚖️ DOJ confirms it wants to break up Google’s ad business

• The Department of Justice affirmed its objective to break up Google's extensive advertising technology division, targeting specific components to encourage greater marketplace fairness following an adverse court decision.

• Specifically, the government agency is petitioning the court to mandate Google sell off its large ad exchange platform and the essential publisher ad server utilized by websites.

• Google contests this proposed divestiture, arguing the prerequisites demand impractical system development and that the entire sell-off proposal lacks legal foundation and would injure publishers and advertisers.

🚫 Meta blocks Apple Intelligence on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp

• Meta has opted to disable Apple Intelligence functions, including Writing Tools and Genmoji creation, within its suite of iOS applications like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

• Users accessing the social media firm's mobile software will find that integrated features for AI text assistance or customized emoji generation are currently inaccessible on their iPhones.

• Although the technology company did not provide a specific reason, speculation suggests it aims to promote its own Meta AI amid past disagreements with Apple.